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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Dh and I went to Applebee's last night for date night. I was very surprised that what I got was really good! I got the Steak & Portobellos 7 point dinner. The steak and whatever kind of mushroom sauce was just so good. The broccoli was so good and had some kind of dressing on it that was fabulous! The potatoes were also good, but they did not have what I think looks like chives in the picture above. Then we had the Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake. I shared half with dh so it was only 2 points for me. I had read a lot of reviews online that the chocolate tasted like rubber. I will admit that the texture is different but with the sauce it is really good. I also learned something about an appetizer we always order when we go to Applebee's. It is the Buffalo Chicken Wings w/Bleu Cheese Dressing. Dh ordered it again and I ate three pieces. There were 12 pieces in the dish, I counted. I picked the smaller ones and only used a very small amount of dressing. When we got home, I asked dh if he knew how many calories and grams of fat were in that appetizer. He said no so I told him and now I am going to tell you: Buffalo Chicken Wings w/Bleu Cheese Dressing (1724 cal/132 g fat/2 g fiber/) 45 WW Points!!!!! Dh was shocked, he said, "That is deadly!" I do not think we will EVER be ordering that again! I had to use some of my 35 weekly flex points to eat the small portion that I ate. I would have rather spent those points on a Caesar salad! Next time I might just do that! If you are interested in finding out calorie and fat content of things you eat you might want to visit Dottie's Weight Loss Zone. That is the best source I have found to get that information! But I warn you, you just might not want to know! LOL!

Friday, March 28, 2008

I used to do Freezer Food Friday until the person quit doing it. What a Crock! has taken it over and I am going to start posting. Most of you who know me know I am doing Weight Watchers and have lost 34 pounds so the recipes I post now are WW friendly. Enjoy!

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Mustard-Dill Chicken in Foil Packs (Freezer-friendly)

~1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 Tbsp dried dill weed(can use fresh dill weed)

1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz pieces

~Preheat oven to 350°F.Combine mustard, yogurt, garlic salt and dill in a small bowl; thoroughly coat chicken with mustard sauce. Tear off 4 sheets of aluminum foil that are large enough to wrap each chicken breast individually. Place a prepared chicken breast on each piece of foil; gather foil loosely around chicken and fold over to seal.Place foil packs on a nonstick baking sheet; bake for 20 minutes. Using oven mitts and keeping your face away from steam, open foil. Broil chicken on foil until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes more.

Yields 1 piece of chicken per serving at 3 points each.For more Freezer Food Friday recipe go to What a Crock!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

A few months ago, I won a free blog header from Trista at Pumkin Patch Creations. So now here is my new design. So, what do you all think? I love it. If you are needing a new header head on over to Pumkin Patch Creations. For a blog header installed, she only charges $15. I think that is a great price and I may even redo one of my other blogs! Go on over to Pumkin Patch Creations and visit and comment on the post about my new header over there.

~Put all ingredients except Splenda into crockpot. Stir to blend well. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 1/2 hours, stirring once after about 1 hour. Or, cook on HIGH for the first 30 minutes, turn to LOW and cook as long as you desire. Check after the first 2 hours of low cooking and stir. If rice is not absorbing the milk quickly enough, turn the crockpot up to HIGH again. Keep cover on at all times. Before serving, add Splenda to taste. Add a dollop of fat-free Cool Whip to each serving, if desired.Makes about 6 cups. 1/2 cup serving is about 2 points

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Slow Cooking Thursday is sponsored by Diary of a SAHM go look there for more recipes.

Today for Tasty Thursday, Trista is asking for Spring recipes. When I think about the springtime, bright colors and fruits come to my mind! Especially lemons! I LOVE lemons! Recently at my Weight Watchers meeting, we talked about low calorie and low fat desserts and diet soda cakes came up. They are so good and all you need is a cake mix (any flavor), 1 can of any diet pop flavor, and one to two egg whites (optional but helps hold cake together.) All you do is mix those three ingredients (batter will be thick!) and then bake according to the cake package directions. The recipe I am sharing today is a similar kind of cake, but adds a few more ingredients. The Weight Watchers point value will depend on what kind of cake mix you use, all have different values for dry mix, so look on the package. Most of these cakes will be between 2-4 points. Enjoy and Happy Spring!

~Mix Lemon cake mix, egg white and diet soda. Grease a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Pour cake batter into pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.During the last few minutes of baking, put lemon jello and condensed milk in a sauce pan and stir on medium low heat until smooth. Take cake out of oven and poke holes all over the top. Pour jello mix over warm cake, filling in the holes. Cool completely. Mix 2 tsp lemon extract with cool whip. cover cake with cool whip mix. Place cake in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Serves 24

Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty Spring recipes.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

This is the second book in this series. This book left me with the same feelings as the first. The book is really great but it just does not end right. Well,I guess that is because there is a sequeal, but still it just did not end like I wanted. This book focuses more on the second oldest sister in the family Ruth as she is put to the test by many trials. In the end, she puts her faith in God and finally makes it. This book as well as the first are both kind of stressful as someone is out to get the family and keeps doing small threatening things as well as causing a buggy accident that leads to the death of a family member. So, the autor has thrown in a mystery in a christian fiction book. The reader is given lots of clues as to who is doing this, but we still do not find out who or why in this book. I am a big fan of Wanda Brunstetter and this book meets my expectations of her, really good!

This is from the Keeper of the Ring Series. I do not usually read books like this. The first one that I read by this author was Uncharted, but this is really a different book. I remember in history learning about Roanoke, but nobody really knew what happened to it. Angela Hunt tries to create what she thinks might have happened to that lost colony. A very believable story with great characters that seem believeable. I got to where I could not put the book down. This book continues with other tales. The next one is called Jamestown and I am excited to read that too. I really enjoyed this book as I have both Angela Hunt books that I have read now. I have more of hers on my to read list.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Well I just realized that I have lost over 30 pounds. I usually just say 5 or whatever the loss is but I just realized that I lost over 30 pounds and that makes me feel so good! If you want to see all of my progress go here.We are all still pretty bad. I took all of the kids to the doctor yesterday. She put all of them except the baby on Tamaflu. I really do not think Tamaflu works on this flu if you want to know the truth, all my kids have fevers right now. I feel better, but my head feels like it is swimming and it makes it hard to do anything and I really have to at least do dishes and some laundry. Well, with fevers they are definitely not into as much, so that makes it a little bit easier! I will be around, but I am a little busy right now with all that is going on.

Friday, March 14, 2008

I am so sick! I started feeling really bad last night. Dh has been sick almost a week now and he decided to go to the doctor today. He has the flu. The doctor said it was the bad kind type b. So, she wrote me a prescription for Tamaflu. Dh will just have to deal with his for another week or so because they did not catch his in time. I just started feeling really bad. I hope that the medicine will help me, the pharmacist said that she took it and started feeling better the next day. My kids all have bad colds they have had flu shots and their doctor said that it is good for flu type a,b, and c. So, that is probably why they are not so bad. That Tamaflu is $80 for a 5 day supply. I can't imagine if we had an epidemic like they are saying we will have how we would find the money for everyone in our family to be able to take it? That's scary to even think about! I probably will not be around for a few days while we try to get better.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, milk and egg. Stir in meat, chili seasoning mix, tomatoes, and corn until well blended. Pour into slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour, then on LOW for 3 hours. Sprinkle with cheese. Cook another 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serves 8

NOTE: If you would like a spicier flavor, you can add 1 small can chopped green chilies or substitute Rotel tomatoes for the diced tomatoes.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Well here are my new jeans that I bought that fit me. I have not worn real jeans in a long time, probably 12 years at least before that I wore all elastic waist. These zip up and I like my new shirt too. This will be my March progress picture too. I think the pictures were taken too differntly to tell much of a difference, but believe me I know there is a difference! If you want to compare, here are my last pictures. These jeans and shirt were my "reward" for reaching my first goal!

This is not to show you my big fat butt, but to show you my new jeans have no elastic, important only to me probably!

2. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Coat pan and chicken with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan, and cook 5 minutes or until browned. Rinse stir fry mix with hot water and drain; add to pan and cook 2 minutes.

3. When chicken is almost done, combine cornstarch, next 3 ingredients, and reserved pineapple juice; stir with a whisk. Pour juice mixture into pan; stir in pineapple. Bring mixture to a boil. and cook 3 minutes or until sauce is thickened and chicken is done.

Well, first let me say this was a very hard week for me! I started out doing so well and then my dh's grandfather died and we were gone from home a lot! We ate out at an all you can eat steak house one night. I have read some articles on how you should eat at these places and I pretty much followed it. A big salad first then fruits and veggies and then a lean meat, I had chicken instead of steak. Doing this really helped me stay on track. I was pretty full before I even started on the chicken! I also am looking at eating out in a different way now. I do try to watch my portions and fat in things while eating out, but eating out is such a luxury for us when we do go, I am going to stop worrying about it and just enjoy it instead of feeling so guilty. I counted all my points that day except the eating out because I really had no clue on some of the things as this restaurant does not have nutritional facts online or in the restaurant. I also was snowed in for a day and really snacked a lot! I did snack on healthy things usually 1-3 point items, but my points really added up that day! Still though I have a BIG weight loss for this week! Last week I weighted 298.6. This week, I weighed in at 293.2! That is another 5.4 pounds GONE!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Goodreads is a site for readers. You can list all the books you have read, want to read or are currently reading. You can also list all of your reviews for your books on here. The neatest part of the site is that you can link up to your friends and see what they are reading. I just recently joined but I think it would be a great place for any reader. Go check it out. If you are on there, please let me know so we can become friends!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I really liked the "daily list" that Tammy had on her blog yesterday. I used to do the Lorie's To Do List everyday and it really helped me get stuff done so I want to start back. I have not been doing so good on getting stuff done around the house and spending some quality learning time with the kids. So, I think this will really help me and I plan to continue it. I think it will also make me for sure have something to do and not want to eat all day. lol!Morning To-Do's1. Read with Nick to wake him up2. Unload Dishwasher3. Load dishwasher4. Read Scriptures5. Exercise (twins will join me)6. Start laundry7. Sweep and Mop Kitchen Floor8. Breakfast9. Dress and change kids10. Update Blogs11. Kids watch educational video(Dora

Monday, March 3, 2008

Today I weighed in at 298.6 pounds. Last week I was 299.2 pounds. So, that is a lose of .6 pound. Not much, but I will take it. I know I need to exercise more. I think I only exercised twice last week. I seem to get a better loss on the weeks I exercise more. I am working on getting a group of people together to exercise once a week together. This would also get me out of the house a little bit and around adults. I will try and see what I can do, I know a few people are interested. Wish me luck.